Bucharest silent on Hungarian passport law

The government of Romania, where around 1.5 million Hungarians live, has yet to make an official statement on the amendment of Hungary's citizenship law. Laura Cernahoschi explains the government's reticence in the blog Voxpublica: "Romania can't protest because it has a similar law for Romanians in neighbouring countries. But there is one difference. ... The Hungarians will be granted Hungarian citizenship, but not the right to vote. The Hungarian politicians want to make sure that what happened last year in the Romanian presidential elections won't happen there. Romanians living outside the country played a major role in securing Traian Băsescu's victory. ... This was only natural: The Moldovans see him as the one who gave them the chance of a European passport. Given that the election was won by only 70,000 votes the votes from Moldova were a pretty important factor."

» full article (external link, Romanian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Minorities, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Elections, » Hungary, » Slovakia, » Romania
All available articles from » Laura Cernahoschi

» To the complete press review of Friday, May 28, 2010